Aidan's Training Log (just weak strongman)
07-26-2014
, 10:34 AM
Spoiler:
07-26-2014
, 04:04 PM
07-26-2014
, 05:38 PM
07-26-2014
, 06:45 PM
07-26-2014
, 07:50 PM
07-27-2014
, 06:03 AM
Bag was packed evening before, along with bananas, PB sammiches, a couple protein bars and some gatorade. Breakfast was oatmeal with milk and sugar, and a couple fried eggs and toast. The meet was being hosted at a CF gym about 30mins away, owned by one of the women that lifts with us. Get there at 9am, already a bit of a crowd but it was nice to see her and have someone to chat to. Find out its going to be one flight of about 12 women, and one of all 20-odd men, so they're weighing in women first. Bit of waiting around, weigh in and give openers at about 9:45am (81.3kg). John arrives not long after. Eat a little after 10am, and sipping away while chatting. Told to stop pacing. Set rack heights. Start foamrolling about 10:45am, lifting starts roughly on time for the women and I start warming up.
Its cold in the warehouse, so it takes a bit to get going. Once ive loosened up squats start feeling real good. I warm up to 160kg, but we mis-timed it. We were told women were in the 3rd round, they were still in the second. I wait five minutes, and take another warmup at 160kg. We head up to the platform area, and find a seat – there’s a ring of plyo boxes in the corner and we’re mostly sitting there (its cold with the warehouse doors open – they shut them after squats). Im probably 2/3rds of the way down the list, so a bit of a wait. A couple of young’uns are up first looking nervous as hell, but both hit their openers comfortably. Im nervous as hell. Bar’s loaded is the call, and I get some words of encouragement, warnings to wait for the calls and slaps on the back. The four or five paces to the bar feel like an eternity. I step under the bar, and everything disappears. Unrack it, step back, squat, white lights, easy. See a 93er open with 230kg, very impressive lifting all day from this guy. Everyone is settling in, and the wait feels like it goes… on and on. The waiting brings the nerves back a little, but second and third attempts go pretty smoothly. It was great to have John there handling the little bits of paper for next lifts, and we stuck closely to the plan keeping it pretty conservative with a third lift of 195kg. Others from the team were there too, and I got shouts of encouragement and congratulations after squats, which was awesome. Eat my PB sandwiches, the rest of a protein bar and a banana. I get a few text messages come through, people catching the live stream, with more encouragement.
I’m feeling a slight nagging tension at the bottom of my right scapula, but some ball work and its feeling alright. Hitting 80kg and 95kg with commands with ease. We time it pretty well for bench. I jump the “bar’s loaded” command, and get asked to step off, which jangles the nerves. 105kg flies up. Good start, but John comes over and says the judge spotted my foot roll a bit and reminds me to get planted. He calls for 112.5kg, and it goes up ok – we wanted 117.5kg but still wanted to stay on track for 9/9 so I go for 115kg on third attempt and make it. The only lift of the day I am conscious of the crowd and other lifters during a lift or anything else at all – I vividly hear the shouts of UP UP and stick with it, grinding out a second PR of the day.
I eat my last banana while chatting to some other lifters. Everyone was awesome, a guy was interested in my squat shoes and I was chatting to another guy about SBDs. The warmup room was humming down our end as earlier John and I picked up a few of the real noobs and a couple of other unattached guys and get a system going to keep the bars being loaded and people warming as efficiently as possible (it seemed all over the place in the rest of the room). I take two caffeine tabs. I work up to pulling 170kg with ease. Kylesa humming through my headphones. We talk about moving up from 185kg, but in the end we decided to stay with what we had planned before the day. It flies up. 200kg second attempt, and it feels hard, shoulder/lat a bit buggy. I should not have trusted myself and instead looked at a video. John and Troy talk about moving to 215kg+. I said I don’t want to think about it and will go with what they decide. We stick with 210kg, and it feels great – way easier than the 200kg. Could have gone more, but Im not at all unhappy about it. Having a plan made the day so much less stressful, and I was definitely way less distracted than most of the other lifters. I’ll take the PRs and the knowledge that more is there to be had.
We shake a few hands, chat to a few other lifters. I pimp my coaches as much as I can. Help pack up the gear, and tidy the weight room. Shoot the breeze for a while, pick up my certificate, have a few photos. It’s been a long day and I am ****ing famished.
Overall, it was an awesome day. Everyone was super helpful and encouraging, from the newest lifters all the way through to the big guys and the judges. Saw some pretty sick lifts, couple of 270 deadlifts, 160+ benches. I’m looking forward to next time, now the nerves are out of the way, and really see what I can put together!
I really appreciate all the kind words, encouragement and help from all of the forum. Seriously, it means a lot.
Its cold in the warehouse, so it takes a bit to get going. Once ive loosened up squats start feeling real good. I warm up to 160kg, but we mis-timed it. We were told women were in the 3rd round, they were still in the second. I wait five minutes, and take another warmup at 160kg. We head up to the platform area, and find a seat – there’s a ring of plyo boxes in the corner and we’re mostly sitting there (its cold with the warehouse doors open – they shut them after squats). Im probably 2/3rds of the way down the list, so a bit of a wait. A couple of young’uns are up first looking nervous as hell, but both hit their openers comfortably. Im nervous as hell. Bar’s loaded is the call, and I get some words of encouragement, warnings to wait for the calls and slaps on the back. The four or five paces to the bar feel like an eternity. I step under the bar, and everything disappears. Unrack it, step back, squat, white lights, easy. See a 93er open with 230kg, very impressive lifting all day from this guy. Everyone is settling in, and the wait feels like it goes… on and on. The waiting brings the nerves back a little, but second and third attempts go pretty smoothly. It was great to have John there handling the little bits of paper for next lifts, and we stuck closely to the plan keeping it pretty conservative with a third lift of 195kg. Others from the team were there too, and I got shouts of encouragement and congratulations after squats, which was awesome. Eat my PB sandwiches, the rest of a protein bar and a banana. I get a few text messages come through, people catching the live stream, with more encouragement.
I’m feeling a slight nagging tension at the bottom of my right scapula, but some ball work and its feeling alright. Hitting 80kg and 95kg with commands with ease. We time it pretty well for bench. I jump the “bar’s loaded” command, and get asked to step off, which jangles the nerves. 105kg flies up. Good start, but John comes over and says the judge spotted my foot roll a bit and reminds me to get planted. He calls for 112.5kg, and it goes up ok – we wanted 117.5kg but still wanted to stay on track for 9/9 so I go for 115kg on third attempt and make it. The only lift of the day I am conscious of the crowd and other lifters during a lift or anything else at all – I vividly hear the shouts of UP UP and stick with it, grinding out a second PR of the day.
I eat my last banana while chatting to some other lifters. Everyone was awesome, a guy was interested in my squat shoes and I was chatting to another guy about SBDs. The warmup room was humming down our end as earlier John and I picked up a few of the real noobs and a couple of other unattached guys and get a system going to keep the bars being loaded and people warming as efficiently as possible (it seemed all over the place in the rest of the room). I take two caffeine tabs. I work up to pulling 170kg with ease. Kylesa humming through my headphones. We talk about moving up from 185kg, but in the end we decided to stay with what we had planned before the day. It flies up. 200kg second attempt, and it feels hard, shoulder/lat a bit buggy. I should not have trusted myself and instead looked at a video. John and Troy talk about moving to 215kg+. I said I don’t want to think about it and will go with what they decide. We stick with 210kg, and it feels great – way easier than the 200kg. Could have gone more, but Im not at all unhappy about it. Having a plan made the day so much less stressful, and I was definitely way less distracted than most of the other lifters. I’ll take the PRs and the knowledge that more is there to be had.
We shake a few hands, chat to a few other lifters. I pimp my coaches as much as I can. Help pack up the gear, and tidy the weight room. Shoot the breeze for a while, pick up my certificate, have a few photos. It’s been a long day and I am ****ing famished.
Overall, it was an awesome day. Everyone was super helpful and encouraging, from the newest lifters all the way through to the big guys and the judges. Saw some pretty sick lifts, couple of 270 deadlifts, 160+ benches. I’m looking forward to next time, now the nerves are out of the way, and really see what I can put together!
I really appreciate all the kind words, encouragement and help from all of the forum. Seriously, it means a lot.
07-27-2014
, 07:52 AM
07-27-2014
, 12:39 PM
07-27-2014
, 06:29 PM
Im not sure about when my next competition will be yet. There is another novice comp scheduled for november, I will try and do that if they'll let me (youre only supposed to do one). If I don't we will probably do a mock meet at the gym for all of the lifters. Otherwise it will be regional champs sometime in march/april next year.
